Henry G Manson makes the case

David Cameron’s quote about UKIP has been bandied around the press this weekend amid speculation he may distance himself from it. He was right not to do so. Whatever the politics or prejudices of UKIP supporters there are things we do know about them in the public domain. They’re not something that any mainstream political party should have anything to do with.

There also those in UKIP rejected by the Conservatives because they no longer share the party’s values, such as these golliwog supporters: Relatively minor stuff in the scheme of things, you might say. If it was left at that, you might think the party is culturally dated and insensitive. But it’s not.

There is an Islamophobic element to UKIP that mirrors many parties in Europe. There have been UKIP candidates arguing that Islam is a “morally flawed and degenerate” religion. Another UKIP candidate claimed “the Koran is worse than Mein Kampf”.

There’s talk of a new book from a former Conservative who defected to UKIP and has since left will also tell about alleged racism and corruption from UKIP officials. But it’s not just about issues of race.

In Croydon North we have the UKIP candidate tweets he is the candidate to “give it to you straight” in a campaign against an openly gay Labour candidate. This is reminiscent of Simon Hughes’ unsavoury by-election campaign in Bermondsey over Peter Tatchell thirty years ago and dogged the deputy leader for years. In 2004 boxing promoter Frank Maloney was a UKIP candidate in the 2004 mayoral election where he refused to campaign in Camden because there are “too many gays” and “I don’t want to campaign around gays. I don’t think they do a lot for society.”

It seems extraordinary that Conservative Vice Chairman Michael Fabricant would now urge David Cameron’s Conservative Party to have an electoral alliance with UKIP. It’s one thing to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats out of parliamentary necessity. It’s another to consider such an alliance prior to an election with talk of deals to guarantee Nigel Farage a government job.

David Cameron is right to stand his ground and not apologise for his earlier remarks about UKIP. What should worry him more is the growing number of people in his own party who seem quite relaxed with working with them.

They are either blissfully unaware of what lies underneath the party’s anti-European statements or worse are prepared to tolerate them for electoral gain.

There will have been great pressure on the Prime Minister to respond to political events and resile from earlier statements about UKIP. I am quite proud that he didn’t.

Henry G Manson

Note from Mike Smithson

If anybody from UKIP would like to respond to Henry’s post then I’d be delighted to publish it